Yow was it a hot one today! The combination of the humidity and heat seemed to keep more people inside than out on a normal Sunday. While at my open house this afternoon, I happened to notice someone moving in across the street and certainly pitied them working at carrying things from truck to house. The older gentleman looked as though he was a bit wiped out by the heat as well. I was reminded today how much a cover of mature trees around a home can make a difference with the temperature inside. When I entered my open house, I thought that a Realtor had left the air conditioner on since it was quite cool. I looked at the thermostat and it was registering 77 degrees. I didn’t bother with the controls since I thought it best to leave the air on while I was there the two hours. After several buyers came and went, I noticed the temperature on the thermostat had gone up to 79 and wondered why. When I went over to check it, I noticed that the air conditioner wasn’t even turned on. I turned it on and set it at 77 degrees. With that said, I was there for nearly an hour and half and didn’t notice a great temperature change in the home. With it being over 90 degrees outside and the inside a comfortable 77 degrees confirmed the fact that a good shading of a home from the hot summer sun really does help in a great way with cooling expenses.
I freely mentioned it to the next buyers that arrived. I also found there to be a plum tree growing there that has the purple leaves and smaller red plums on it. The nurseries used to sell them but I haven’t noticed them for quite some time. It’s likely they’re not popular due to most people not wanting to pick them and turn them into either plum jam or plum sauce. My grandmother had several plum trees on her farm and she was always finding different canning recipes for them. I always liked having Sunday dinners with her when invited because she always made so much tasty food from scratch. With those decorative, as well as food source plum trees having fallen out of favor, reminds me how dis-interested people are in growing their own food. People simply don’t want to invest the time in growing food for themselves. Yes, we see a few small gardens around the city, but they are more for the “novelty” of having a garden. Measurable quantities of home grown fruits and vegetables takes more space than one would think. A garden area with the measurements of 130 ft. long by 40 ft. wide would supply a family with enough vegetables to last most of the winter if they take care of it and harvest when necessary.
One cannot imagine how much money is saved when spending a little extra time out of their day to plant, weed, harvest, and either freeze or can their produce. Many believe it’s too much work, but really it isn’t as long as they get used to it and develop their own time saving methods. I hope more people get into the swing of gardening.
I had an appointment to show an acreage this afternoon located north and east of Rock Falls. As I was driving through Rock Falls I noticed some young people on the shoreline carrying big tubes. As I crossed the bridge I glanced down to the water and noticed about four other big tubes floating down the river. I wished I had time to stop and take a photo or two but was running late for my showing. All the rest of the way to the acreage I continued to dream how fun it would be to go tubing on the Shell Rock.
